I have been cooking pork belly for the last few months now trying to perfect it for Christmas day.

The last time it came out perfect however I wanted to ask others if one of my steps was really necessary.

LAST TIME
2.5 Kg boneless pork belly - cut into 2 pieces

- Season well both sides
- fill bottom of large roasting dish with assorted veg and thyme
- place pork on top
- slightly fill the tray with apple juice
- cover with tin foil and place in an oven at 110 C (230 F) for 5 hours
- Increase oven temperature to 180 C (356 F) for further hour
- Remove tray from oven, remove pork and veg from pan and replace pork again.
- Place tray on top of pork to flatten it out with weights on top
- place in fridge overnight
- next day I remove the skin and cook separately, preheat oven to 180 C (356 F)
- cut pork up into single servings and cooking for 40-50 mins until hot and any left fat has melted.

Now my questions are:

1. I will be doing around 1.5 kg more of pork this time, do I need to increase the cooking time? The thing to note is it will be in a separate tray, not 1 large piece, probably 3 pieces instead of the 2.
2. At the fifth hour I increased the temp to 180C (356 F) as I was worried the fat wasn't melting away enough. Was this necessary?